Correction Fluid
by skwirelygurli
Summary: Austin fills in Ally's calendar. Auslly.
1. Chapter 1

**Correction Fluid, an Austin and Ally oneshot**

**I do not own Austin and Ally. This is for littlebrunette4. Debating if I need to add a part two, so please enjoy and review!**

It cannot be this hard to find a piece of paper. Just one piece, so he can write down one verse before he forgets. He'd type it into his phone, but the battery has died, and being six hours into this power outage, there's no way he can charge it.

He rummages through her desk drawer.

"What's this?" he asks, pulling out what appears to be a calendar.

"Don't you remember?" She fans the pages with her thumb. "You gave it to me so we could make time to write songs together."

Austin takes the book, noting the 2012 date. "Then why is it empty?"

Save for a 'To Ally -Austin' because he was too afraid to write the word 'love.'

The pen is still full of ink too.

"Because I didn't need to use it." They'd spent so much time together after that, there was no need to beg for his attention.

Though lately, he feels like he needs to beg for hers. Stupid Gavin. How dare he make her happy and be generally attractive and musically inclined. That was his thing!

It still can be his thing.

He uncaps the pen, picks a box. Scribbling something down, he sets it on top of her desk and continues his search for a sheet of paper. If she's not going to use the calendar, he will.

Even if it is two years out of date.

_Ice cream in the park, 5pm.  
_

He watches her kiss Gavin on the cheek as he slings his guitar over his shoulder and picks up his coffee. He says something funny, and she's still laughing when she reaches the bench.

"Shouldn't we be eating dinner before dessert?" She takes a seat next to him, and he shrugs nonchalantly.

"I figured you'd have dinner with Gavin." He's her main course, and Austin is the sweet extra. That's how it works now.

"He's going to his sister's for dinner. I was invited, but I already had plans with you." Her hand closes over his, and it takes all his might not to flip his palm over and interlace their fingers.

His hand slips out from underneath hers. Her lip quivers, like she is going to frown. It bounces back.

"I would have understood." He wouldn't have liked it, but he would have accepted it. You make sacrifices for love.

"Austin, I'm not going to ditch my friends to be with my boyfriend." She said it. The B word. He hasn't heard it aloud yet, but it solidifies the truth. Solid as ice cubes. And nearly as cold.

He nods, processing the thought. "So, ice cream?"

"Dinner first."

This is so not a date. This is him being the main course and dessert, as her friend.

No matter what the waitress says.

"Such a cute couple."

He wants to agree.

Mentally, he does.

_Adopt a kitten, __10am_

Some days, like ones where they're frolicking through the music notes (he knows the expression has them in the flowers, but they've spent the past week working on a song for him), he needs someone to hold. They don't hug as often as they used to. That's his fault.

He's afraid he'll forget to let go.

The girl at the shelter recognizes his face, and lets out a little squeal. "You're Austin Moon!"

"Yup." He leans on the counter. "I want to adopt a kitten."

Actually, he wants to adopt a puppy, but his mom said no, that he can either get a kitten or a fish.

You can't cuddle a fish.

"Sure. Come with me." With a too wide smile, she leads him into a room. Almost immediately, three cats perk up in their cages. Another two wander over to see what the fuss is about.

He can't decide on his own.

"I don't know which one to get." He reaches his knuckle out, and a Persian rubs against his hand.

"Get them all," she kids. "They need to get adopted before the end of the month."

He turns to her. "What if they don't?"

Her smile breaks.

So does his heart.

"Unfortunately that's the way it works. I'd take them in, but I already have four at home. Alto, Soprano, Bass, and Tenor."

He scratches behind the Persian's ears. "Couldn't you use a Baritone?"

She laughs long and hard, though he doesn't find it all that funny. Slapping her knees, she shakes her head.

"I think I'm good with my barbershop cat-tet."

The terrible pun reminds him of Ally.

"What if we do a fund raiser for the animals? People could adopt them, and we could raise money to expand the shelter. I could perform."

The day comes, and Ally is by his side, right at ten like the calendar says. Gavin is there too, playing with a Schnauzer.

Of course. First he gets the girl. Now he's going to get the puppy too.

His Persian friend perks up when she sees him.

Meow, meow, purr purr.

"Hey Baritone." He picks her up, curls her into his arms. She falls asleep, and not wanting to wake her, he's forced to ask Gavin to play guitar for him while he performs. The cat wakes up in time to make it a duet.

Weird, but the audience eats it up, and all the animals are adopted, including Darla, the Schnauzer. (Named because 'she's such a little rascal,' like the movie. He thinks he's so clever.)

He may have the girl and the puppy, but he has the cat.

For now, that's okay.

_Potty train the cat, A.S. _

What's not okay is the fact that within moments of entering the Moon household, Baritone pees on the carpet. The shelter girl said it would probably happen out of fear.

Two days later, fear is not an issue.

"Try moving the litter box. Maybe she doesn't like it being out in the open." They place it in the bathroom, next to the toilet.

Baritone follows them in, stares at the box. Looks to the humans. Back to the box.

"I think you need to show her how to use it."

"I am not peeing in a box."

"I meant for you to help her in." Understanding registers on his face.

"You can do it buddy." Austin gets down on his knees and puts her paws in the box, scratching. "This is your box."

The cat climbs in, looks at them.

They look at each other.

"I think she wants her privacy." They exit the room, leaving the door ajar. Baritone scratches around, micturates, and scratches again.

Pleased, he swoops her into a hug. "Thank you, Ally."

He feels like a proud parent who has potty trained his child. With Ally helping, does that make her the mother, or the auntie? Hopefully not the latter, because that would make her his sister, and that'd be incestual.

Not that they're together.

He just wants to be.

_Stop cat from drinking out of the toilet, Soon_

Baritone lifts her whiskers from the bowl, hair drenched with water.

"I thought only dogs drank from the toilet." Ally watches, gobsmacked.

"She came from a house that had three dogs. Probably picked it up from them." She walks between his legs, causing his balance to be compromised. Ally feels his weight crash into her.

"Have you considered leaving the toilet seat down?"

Two days later, she receives a picture message on her phone. Baritone is sitting on top of the closed toilet seat, fast asleep.

'She's not drinking from it anymore, but I think we have a new problem.'

_Write that new song over lunch, noon_

She doesn't show. It's twelve thirty five on a Tuesday, and she's not coming.

He picks up a sandwich and takes a bite. Removing the bread, he feeds Baritone the turkey from Ally's. She gobbles it up.

"At least you haven't left me." He scratches behind her ears again.

Thursday he's brushing the cat's hair when the doorbell rings. There stands Ally.

"Ready to write?" Her songbook is tucked under her arm, a take out box from Jack's Flaps in her hand.

"We were supposed to meet two days ago." He'd kept quiet about it yesterday, having spent the day with the girl from the shelter, meeting the cat-tet. But today, he was still sore from her rejection.

"No, we're supposed to meet today, the tenth. That's what you wrote down." She shows him proof.

Using an outdated calendar sure is tricky. He bets he lost her to Gavin that day.

"So, what did you do Tuesday?"

"Gavin took me to the zoo. What did you do?"

"I waited. And then I wrote the song without you." He'd written two, one full of spite, but now knowing that it was an honest mistake, he's going to hide it far, far away. "It could still use your touch though."

She frowns. "I'm sorry. I'm here now."

Can she stay forever?

It's taking way too much energy to not write 'break up with Gavin' on that darn calendar.

_Kiss Austin_

This one's not in his handwriting. It's painted over with correction fluid that he chips off with the side of his nail.

That's Ally's handwriting.

Does he tell her? It's on the calendar, but she's dating Gavin.

He leaves the calendar open where she can see it. Which she does, sending a wave of panic through her.

Does she kiss him? It's just a kiss. It doesn't specify where, and it could be his nose for all she knows. What had she been thinking when she wrote it?

And why does she think it's along the line of the thoughts coursing through her head now?

She smiles.

She's dating a nice, cute boy, and here she is thinking about kissing Austin. That has to mean something, right?

It sure doesn't mean nothing.

She wishes she never found this calendar.

She grabs her pen, and her hand hovers over the date. It would take all of a minute to cross the memo out.

It would take all of a minute to write 'break up with Gavin.'

The pen gets capped.


	2. Chapter 2

**Correction Fluid, a continuation**

**I do not own Austin and Ally. This is a direct continuation of part one, as requested.**

The pen gets uncapped.

She could change the K to a B. Biss, what would that even mean? It could stand for Because I Said So, but what would she be saying, and why so forcefully?

She could be saying "kiss me."

If she changes the S to G, that could work. Except that's not a word either. Besides, he's already seen that the book says for her to kiss him.

So she should kiss him, right?

Wrong. Right.

Gray area?

She should talk to Gavin about this.

"Hey Ally, everything alright?" She jolts up at the sound of her boyfriend's voice, pen streaking across her cheek.

"Everything's fine. Why wouldn't it be fine?" The rapidity of her words suggests otherwise.

His thumb caresses her face, wiping at the ink.

The calendar is behind him. Her eyes dart to it. His eyes follow.

"What?"

_Kiss Austin_

Gavin nods to her as she approaches Austin, tapping him on the shoulder.

"There you are. You've been missing all-."

There's a kiss where a word should be. A long, passionate one that she doesn't want to pull away from.

Cough cough.

Right, he's still in the room.

Well, this is awkward. He said she could fulfill her promise, not that she could eat his face off. (Okay, that might be a bit extreme, seeing as how his face is as perfect as ever, with red crawling up the sides.)

She hands him the calendar and runs out of the room. He flits his eyes to Gavin.

"I should go talk to her."

"No, I'll go talk to her," Austin commands. For some reason, he lets him.

Knock knock.

His heart jumps as his knuckles rap against the practice room door.

And then it opens.

_Campfire, Sunday after dark_

The marshmallows butt up against each other as the boys lean over the campfire. Austin and Gavin try to pull apart, but the two treats have melted into one. Can't they do the same? Just give her a Gustin or Avin, and then no hearts have to be broken.

If two people are conjoined at the hip, do you date one of them, or both? You can't throw a blanket over the one and pretend he's not there.

You can't date two people at once either.

You have to choose.

They manage to pull the marshmallows apart, and she sighs. These past few nights haven't been filled with much sleep. When she finally does, her dreams fill with fantasies she dare not express aloud.

Not if she wants to stay with Gavin.

Does she though?

"Ooh, let's tell scary stories!" Austin says, licking the chocolate off of his fingers.

Trust her, she's already scared enough. Scared of losing a best friend. Scared of losing Gavin.

Her fingers tighten around her s'more and the cracker breaks.

As long as her heart doesn't follow suit.

_We need to talk, Monday morning_

She nudges him awake with the calendar.

"Wh-what's wrong?" he yawns. "Did you have a bad dream?"

She shows him the calendar. "Come walk with me."

"What's up?" he asks, pulling a sweatshirt over his bare chest. She waits until he's out of the tent to continue the conversation.

"You know how you said that you understood that the kiss was just fulfilling some silly old promise and that I don't have a crush on you anymore?" She lets her hand sway with the morning breeze.

"Yeah." His voice is inquisitive, with a slight note of sleep laced within.

Here it goes.

Everything. This could be a terrible mistake.

"What if I was wrong?"

She risks it anyway.

_Break up with Gavin, Monday afternoon_

It doesn't go down the way she plans. No explanation of how she needs to take a break to let her mind breathe, or how she still wants to be friends with him.

He walked up to her, said he thought she could use some time to figure things out and asked to still be her friend.

All those words stolen out of her mouth.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

_Cat sit Baritone, Friday_

While cleaning the litterbox she finds a crumpled ball of paper in the garbage can. She sees her name, but she resists temptation. If he wanted her to know, he would have told her.

Baritone slides between her feet and jumps at the garbage bin, knocking it over. The paper ball flies out. She chases it around the room.

Austin comes in.

"What are you playing with, Barry?"

His eyes grow.

"I didn't read it, I swear. It was none of my business." She picks up the feline to pet her.

"Trust me, you don't want to read it. It's really bad, and I don't feel that way about you anymore." Now that he knows it was an accidental missing of the meeting, all that hatred in that song has melted away.

Only thing is, she doesn't know it's not a love song.

So she excuses herself to cry.

_Can we talk, 2pm_

He gives the calendar to Trish, who in turn gives it to Ally. She's been ignoring him all week.

"I didn't think you'd come."

"Well, you didn't write a location, so I wasn't sure where to find you."

"Sorry about that."

The dialogue goes empty.

"What'd you want to talk about?"

"Us."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

As soon as he can remember how to string a sentence together.

_First date, 11 am_

He rents a tandem bike to her house, a picnic basket hanging from the handle bars.

He may have copied the idea from a movie that he watched with Dez last week, crying at the happy ending while mentally taking notes.

"Ready to go?"

She's been ready for a long time now. Slipping the calendar into her bag, she sits on the back seat of the bike. There's no sunset to peddle off into, but it's just as perfect.

Besides, they'll have plenty of time for that.

It's all just a penstroke away.

_Commence happily ever after, Now_


End file.
